For decades now groups that needed to raise money would turn to two tried and true options that had been sold countless times before and were a sure crowd pleaser: cookie dough and candy.
Cookie dough has grown from a bake sale Pheasants Forever Banquet 2023 item to now include both frozen and dry dough, and buckets and preformed portions. A number of companies manufacture and distribute these dough’s in flavors as mundane as sugar cookie to the ones with ingredient lists too long for this article.
Candy fundraisers are the other sure-fire way to raise money. Groups only need to buy a big box of candy and then start selling it. Hershey’s and M&M’s, with their various lines, are the big players in this market. However, recent spikes in the input costs for chocolate manufacturers is making it harder and harder for candy fundraising companies to continue offering their products at the standard $1 price point.
The problem with both cookie dough fundraisers and candy fundraisers is that they are both inherently very unhealthy. Loaded with processed sugars and trans-fats, school boards, health officials, and parents are mandating a change in the fundraising world. They want new ways to raise money that don’t endanger the health of their customers.
New Fundraising Ideas
These health concerns, the desire for something new, and the recent surge in “going green” has led to a new fundraising idea; Green Fundraising. Green fundraisers allow groups to sell items that either help the environment, help themselves, or both.
Examples of green fundraising items include organic foods, reusable shopping bags, and trees and flowers. All of them are designed to improve health or to improve the environment. They are also intentionally different from anything seen in fundraising before. People have grown weary of buying the same fundraising products year after year and green fundraisers offer them something new. Healthy fundraisers and green fundraisers look to be very much the future of fundraising.
This idea of something new in fundraising is proving to be very successful for the groups willing to try it. Customers have responded incredibly well to the notion that buying something from a fundraising catalogue doesn’t mean a donation with a cheesy gift anymore but can actually mean they get something they want, can use, and often times need. This approach to fundraising makes the job of the seller much easier as the products almost sell themselves.